Yawn…
Wayne Brown reveals why he’s standing for Auckland mayor again
Wayne Brown says he’s standing for Auckland mayor again to continue the “real progress” he’s made over the past three years.
At a function at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Dinghy Locker on Wednesday, Brown, 78, confirmed he had thrown his hat into the ring for another three-year term, saying he wanted to continue representing the city’s diverse population.
“Over the last three years, we’ve made some real progress. But there is still so much more to do,” Brown said.
“This city has a brilliant future, and being mayor is a job I want to keep doing. That’s why, I am pleased to announce, that I am standing for re-election as Mayor of Auckland on 11 October.”
…who actually gives a fuck?
I’ve lived most of my life in Auckland, I love my city and for the last decade it’s been going backwards and the Boomer King has done sweet fuck all to change any of that.
The city’s public transport is a joke, the rentals and beyond capacity and the cultural life of the city has flat lined.
Wayne has all the vision of your average Boomer Culture Warrior and he has flogged off the Airport.
I’m usually the first to tell people to vote, but because the Auckland Mayoralty is so rigged, I think this might be the best election to refuse to vote in.
To champion and defend democratic infrastructure that produces such damaged results as the Auckland Mayoralty does would make Republicans who adopt voter suppression tactics in America blush.
The Auckland Mayoralty election process is a broken system of engagement that has been allowed to rot on the vine.
My issue is that the local elections are subcontracted out to a private company who have a vested interest in low voter turns outs!
We are such a cheap arsed, deregulated basket case of a country, we sub contracted our democratic obligations to a private company who maximise their return if fewer people engage and cost less resource!
In the last week of voting in 2022, only 8 polling booths were open for a city of 1.2million.
Here they are.
Again, that is Republican tactics in Georgia level voter suppression right there.
So if I wasn’t enrolled to vote, the only place I could have voted was one of these 8 venues.
Central Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Henderson, Manukau, Orewa, Pukekohe, Waiheke and fucking Warkworth.
How the Christ does that list sound reasonable to anyone else?
I can not see how anyone attempting to defend Wayne Brown’s victory will look at 8 booths for 1.2million and pretend that a 35% turn out is a victory for democracy.
It isn’t.
It’s a victory for the private company who has this outrageous contract in the first place.
They run postal ballots because it is far cheaper, not because it engages the population.
As for the counter to the landed gentry having multiple votes around the country (many of whom are boomers), I’m well aware that the landed gentry don’t have multiple votes if they have multiple properties in the same Council, my point is they have multiple votes around the country, if they have properties in different Councils.
The Right will claim they pay rates in different councils, so they have the right to vote multiple times, but renters pay their rent with the cost of rates already built into that rent by the Landlord!
If a renter moves multiple times into different councils, they’ve paid rent that goes towards those rates but they sure as hell don’t get extra votes despite paying those rates in their rents!
I note this to show how the vested interests of the propertied landed gentry (many of whom are boomers) and how their interests are sacrosanct.
To damn an 18 year old without ID who bounces around from house to house and who has to get out to only 1 of 8 booths to cast a vote is churlish.
To blame beneficiaries who are constantly moving in the churn for not getting out to 1 of 8 booths to cast a vote is disconnected from that reality.
To criticise the poor and the apathetic for not being engaged enough to get out to Central Auckland, Great Barrier Island, Henderson, Manukau, Orewa, Pukekohe, Waiheke and fucking Warkworth is just so jaw dropping in its audacity, it’s difficult to take seriously.
What are the solutions here?
I’ve been very clear.
Take the bloody contract off the private company and run it ourselves!
Run it with the same density of polling booths as a National election, a one day vote with 2 weeks of early voting.
There were 84 polling booths in 2020 for Auckland Central and Epsom electorates ALONE last election. That’s not city wide, that’s just the leafy burbs.
How can a handful of suburbs in the swanky part of town have 84 polling booths for the national election when there was only 8 for the entire city of 1.2million for the Mayoralty?
There is an outrageous imbalance of power here and attempting to defend a broken electoral system that has been subcontracted out for the cheapest outcome and call that vintage democratic wine is not acceptable.
Again, this isn’t a Left or Right issue, it’s a basic citizen issue.
Watching so many defend this broken system and claim it is democracy at work is the kind of sophistry we’ve come to expect from those benefiting from it.
If you don’t vote and the total vote drops dramatically, Wayne will have no mandate to do anything.
Give the landed gentry Boomers their victory with zero mandate.
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“Browny” is an arrogant type that would unashamedly assume the Mayoralty whatever the voting turnout–10%, 15%, 20%…he don’t care… just wansta be Mayor. Hopefully Deputy Desley with stand against the prick (though who knows what the machinations of the Auckland right are these days…).
Never happier than when he is sacking union members and making sarcastic comments in the manner of a known it all Engineer (which he is). Brown should go down!
The local electoral rolls are based the General Election rolls, so the vast majority of potential voters, including renters, are actually on the local roll.
Yes there will be some who have just shifted where the change of address has not caught up. But this is nothing like the voter suppression in some US states.
The low participation rates is not because people are constantly shifting, it because the majority of people who get their voting papers in the mail don’t bother to complete the forms and post them back.
I think local elections would be a good place to try out online voting, given the traditional mailing back requirement is more effort than many people than many people want to make
The brilliant future is likely not to show up until there is an out of control fire there.
It is so surprising that in a place of millions that there are only a few people to choose from.
I think there should be an open season on standing, based on having complied with the experience etc on a grid of questions – basic HR. Then with about twenty approved starters , each will be allocated a number and these numbers will be rotated as with a compost mover or a concrete mixer on television. It will be revolved by someone with a good body in a flash outfit who will draw out a number which will be scrutinised, written down and put up on screen. This will be repeated twice, and on the third number – that will be the winner, and the entrants and their numbers will be shown and viewers will observe.
Then there will be a draw for ratepayers desires for the spending on services and there will be ten different types and fifty will be drawn out and the results sorted by department to see which would be prioritised. How democratic. It would be better than at present where we get numbers stepping up with little information about themselves other than I am well known and I am passionate about something that seems relevant.
He will use his second term to destroy Aucklands, libaries, parks and pools. All gone.
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